Reluctant principal's mission a success / Troubled high school starts to turn around

Mission High School Principal Kevin Truitt (left) bumped into Raymon Bass while making the rounds at the San Francisco school. Chronicle photo by Kurt Rogers

Mission High School Principal Kevin Truitt (left) bumped into Raymon Bass while making the rounds at the San Francisco school. Chronicle photo by Kurt Rogers

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Mission High School Principal Kevin Truitt (left) bumped into Raymon Bass while making the rounds at the San Francisco school. Chronicle photo by Kurt Rogers

Mission High School Principal Kevin Truitt (left) bumped into Raymon Bass while making the rounds at the San Francisco school. Chronicle photo by Kurt Rogers

Reluctant principal's mission a success / Troubled high school starts to turn around

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It was just four days before school was to start last fall when Kevin Truitt was summoned to the superintendent's office and asked to take on one of the toughest jobs in the San Francisco Unified School District. His answer was succinct: No, no, and please no.

Of the more than 120 public schools in the city, Mission High was last on Truitt's wish list. Too political. Too troubled. In essence, an educator's nightmare, he thought.

Now, as the school year winds down, Truitt has impressed teachers and parents, befriended students and energized the school. The reluctant leader recently informed Superintendent Arlene Ackerman that he wants to remain at Mission.

Ackerman's choice offers a creative business-model solution to the dilemma of what to do with chronically failing schools. She saw latent talent in a midlevel employee, insisted that he move to a more difficult job and then gave him support to succeed.

"Mission was a school in real turmoil," Ackerman said. "I felt he (Truitt) was someone who could facilitate healing and at the same time not lose sight of the work of improving academic achievement."

She believes that Mission, whose reputation has gone from illustrious to notorious, is turning around.

"Kevin has won their hearts, which wasn't easy," she said. "Miracles happen in schools with strong principals."

Mission could use a miracle. At a school with a famous alumni roster including Carlos Santana and Maya Angelou, fewer than 10 percent of the students in the ninth to the 11th grade read at grade level. Truancy has been high and morale low.

A few years ago, in a controversial move whose aim was to improve Mission's performance, then-Superintendent Bill Rojas "reconstituted" the school, replacing everyone from the janitor to the principal. Ted Alfaro replaced Lupe Arabolos, the school's popular principal.

Although Alfaro wasn't able to achieve the desired academic gains, he also became popular with the community. So when Ackerman declined to renew Alfaro's contract last summer, Latino parents, students and activists staged protests.

Truitt knew the school's tumultuous history and felt he had two things going against him: He's not Latino, and he doesn't speak Spanish. Nearly half of Mission's 874 students are Latino. The school is situated in the heart of the Mission District at the corner of 18th and Dolores.

"Kevin wasn't well received when he came in," said Jesse Tello, whose son is a senior at Mission. "There are a lot of students and parents who don't speak English. They felt neglected."

But, Tello added, "We watched him for a few months. He has proved he wants to work with everyone. He's brought a lot of unity."

That unity began on Day One. Truitt was candid with teachers, expressing his reluctance and fears. He had spent the days before school opened poring over Mission's test scores. He had read through the school site plan, which lays out academic strengths, weaknesses and goals.

"I said to them, 'You're all over the place,' " recalled Truitt as he walked the halls of Mission. "We agreed to shred the old site plan and literally start over."

Since the beginning of school, Truitt has changed the way reading is taught,

designated the lowest performing students for extra help, brought in a literacy specialist and provided teachers with more professional development.

With Ackerman's support, Mission's budget got a big boost, to more than $400,000, from about $70,000, for supplies alone. In addition, the school has three full-time counselors and two assistant principals -- rarities in public high schools. There are seven campus security personnel.

"The students and teachers here are great," said Truitt, the former principal at Junipero Serra Elementary and assistant principal at Everett Middle School. "But, there are the tough things: the calls about kids who did not go home last night, the parents who find out their (children) are sexually active, the students who are homeless."

Many of his students are street savvy but world limited. "My students would be safe walking down Mission street at 2 a.m., but they need to know how to navigate the system, get to college and find sustainable employment."

At lunchtime, Truitt inevitably ends up surrounded by students. He knows their names and talents. He listens and jokes. He has learned to discern between playful banter and a potential fight. He knows what different hand signs mean.

Sabrina Fontenot, a 17-year-old 11th-grader, greeted Truitt with a hug. "He's the best thing that's happened to this school," she said. "He's the man. I love coming to school because of what he's done. He understands us."

Born in a small town outside of Boston, Truitt was reared in the projects by a single mom who worked 60-hour weeks in a plastics factory.

Truitt was the first in his family to graduate from college. He received a full scholarship to Northeastern University and went on to earn master's degrees in math and administration.

In his office, he pointed to a letter he had taped up showing that the school will be sending its first student to Harvard. And he boasted about Mission students who had won a citywide legal competition.

After lunch, when halls were suddenly quiet again, Truitt's thoughts turned to the days ahead. There's the prom, which he will attend decked out in a tuxedo and a "fabulous vest," and carrying a flashlight to break up any "nasty dancing."

And when school reopens, as part of his plan to improve the school and public perception, he will drape a banner across the front of the building.